The present invention relates to an LED with an output coupling structure that increases efficiency.
In conventional LEDs, the radiation-producing area generally extends as an active layer over an entire layer plane or a strip-like area of a layer plane. On the front side of the component there is normally a connecting contact (bond pad) for current injection. The opposing electrode can be applied to the rear of the substrate, as a contact metallization over the entire area, or can be formed by a contact which is applied laterally to a radiation-producing strip on the front side and is connected to the underside of the active layer via suitably disposed, electrically conductively doped areas. In the case of surface-emitting LEDs or in the case of edge-emitting and surface-emitting LEDs, an output coupling layer can be disposed on the front side, which improves the coupling of light out of the chip.
The radiation produced is intended to be coupled as directly as possible out of the LED. Since the semiconductor material has a higher refractive index (typically 3.5) than the surrounding air or another transparent material that adjoins the semiconductor material (for example a resin with a refractive index of typically 1.5), total reflection occurs in the event of inadequately steep incidence of the radiation on the interface. The radiation is repeatedly reflected in the interior of the semiconductor material and leaves the LED only after a considerable reduction in the radiation power. In the case of box-shaped commercially available LEDs, a ray that does not strike the interface within the limiting angle of the total reflection with regard to the perpendicular which, in the numerical example specified, is around 25.38xc2x0, can be repeatedly reflected at the same angle at the mutually opposite interfaces and can finally be absorbed in the area of a contact or an active zone or in the substrate. The application of a thick semiconductor layer to the upper side of the LED supplies a structure in which the radiation has a higher probability of striking the side faces (edges) of the component at an angle that is sufficiently steep to emerge from the semiconductor material.
Published, Non-Prosecuted British Patent Application GB 2 326 023 A, corresponding to U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,323,063 and 6,229,160, includes a description of a radiation-producing semiconductor component in which the outer side faces form an oblique angle with respect to the plane of the active layer. This results in radiation being produced, in the event of total reflection at the side faces, that is deflected into a ray direction which runs largely perpendicular to the flat upper side of the component, so that the radiation can emerge here. It is therefore possible for the major part of the radiation produced to be coupled out of the LED after at most one total reflection, which increases the light yield.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,087,949 includes a description of an LED with a semiconductor body with beveled flanks. The n-conductively doped semiconductor body is transparent to the radiation and, on the rear, is provided with a p-conductively doped layer. The current injection into the pn junction is carried out via contacts on the front and rear. The rear contact adjoins the p-doped layer in a small central area and is otherwise isolated from the layer by an isolation layer. In this way, the current path is limited to the central area of the diode. The radiation produced only in the central area therefore passes to the front side of the LED and strikes the oblique flanks formed in the semiconductor body at very steep angles in each case, which makes it possible to couple the radiation immediately out of the semiconductor material.
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide an LED with an coupling-out structure that overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art devices of this general type, in which the output coupling of the radiation is improved.
With the foregoing and other objects in view there is provided, in accordance with the invention, an LED. The LED contains a first layer electrically conductively doped with a first conductivity type, a second layer electrically conductively doped with a second conductivity type being opposite to the first conductivity type, and an active layer provided for radiation production disposed between the first and second layers. The active layer, the first layer and the second layer define a layer sequence having an upper surface. An output coupling layer is disposed on the upper surface and is provided for emergence of the radiation. The output coupling layer has and is bounded by lateral flanks defining at least two output coupling areas corresponding to mutually offset proportions of the output coupling layer. An angle formed between the lateral flanks and a plane of the output coupling layer lies between 45xc2x0 and 88xc2x0. Two contacts, including a first contact disposed on the output coupling layer and a second contact disposed on the layer sequence, are provided for electrical connections.
In the LED according to the invention, there is formed the structured output coupling layer on the upper side. The lateral edges of the output coupling layer form flanks which are aligned with respect to the layer plane at an angle between 45xc2x0 and 88xc2x0, preferably between 60xc2x0 and 88xc2x0. The output coupling layer has a plurality of the output coupling areas which are provided for the emergence of radiation and which are offset from one another. The output coupling areas can in each case be bounded substantially circularly and form flat truncated cones with level upper and lower interfaces of the output coupling layer. The radiation-producing areas of the active layer are preferably limited to areas that, in a projection perpendicular with respect to the layer plane, in each case lie within the circular boundary of the relevant output coupling area. If the radiation-producing areas are not bounded in this or a similar way, the flanks of the output coupling layer at the edges of the output coupling areas preferably run at alternately acute and obtuse angles or are provided with zigzags that narrow in the manner of a taper or without outward and inward bulges.
In accordance with an added feature of the invention, means are provided for limiting the radiation production in accordance with the output coupling areas. The means for limiting the radiation production limits the active layer laterally to at least two mutually separated radiation-producing areas. Alternatively, the means for limiting the radiation production includes lateral limitation of the first contacts each applied to the output coupling layer in an area of one of the at least two output coupling areas being at least two mutually separated output coupling areas.
In accordance with an additional feature of the invention, the means for limiting the radiation production includes a pn junction interrupted into at least two mutually separated areas and blocks in an envisaged current direction, the means being disposed in the layer sequence.
In accordance with a further feature of the invention, the means for limiting the radiation production includes an electrically insulating layer interrupted in at least two mutually separated areas, the electrically insulating layer is disposed in the layer sequence.
In accordance with another feature of the invention, the output coupling layer has a form of truncated cones in the output coupling areas.
In accordance with a further added feature of the invention, the lateral flanks of the output coupling layer are in a form of zigzags defining a star shape in the output coupling areas and narrow in a manner of a taper.
In accordance with a concomitant feature of the invention, the angle formed between the lateral flanks and the plane of the output coupling layer lies between 60xc2x0 and 88xc2x0.
Other features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in the appended claims.
Although the invention is illustrated and described herein as embodied in an LED with a coupling-out structure, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.
The construction and method of operation of the invention, however, together with additional objects and advantages thereof will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.